If love is what is required, then how do we view the many commandments in the Bible. The Jewish people grew up learning that what made them special was God’s redemptive involvement in their history and governance. God saved them from Egypt and gave them laws to show them how to live. Then why did so few actually get it? Why did so many look past the redemptive history and the gratitude it was designed to invoke, to settle their religion on rule keeping and human tradition? The Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi recording many severe rebukes of Israel. God concludes His special Old Testament revelation by essentially telling Israel that despite all His involvement in their history and governance they failed to live up to their responsibilities. His last words to them centered on repentance. Despite the attempts of Jesus and His disciples, the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem were ultimately destroyed because they refused to listen and heed the call to repentance. They got lost in the commandments. They could only see the surface, not the righteous and holy core that lies within each one.

But in the midst of the rebuke God remembers the faithful and righteous. Listen to how He describes these people (Malachi 3:16-18):

“Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him. ‘They will be my people,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘On the day when I act, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient and dutiful child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.’”

Who were those who got the message? Those who feared God and loved to think about Him. Think about that. All the history, all the battles, all the laws and God sums up who He delights in with the few words, “Those who fear me and love to think about me.”

Malachi 4 (the final words of the Old Testament) says the following:

“The Lord Almighty says, ‘The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. The arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw on that day. They will be consumed like a tree—roots and all. But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘Remember to obey the instructions of my servant Moses, all the laws and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel. Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.’”

Notice God’s exhortations include instructions for Israel to obey all the laws and regulations. If God thinks it is important to obey them then they could not be bad. If understood correctly, and within the context of God’s loving provision, the laws can actually lead one to have a deep appreciation and gratitude toward Him, a love toward Him. The laws do not have to lead away from God, for they can actually drive one to God as understanding is sought and God’s provision is seen within the overall plan of God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many in Israel, however, saw them as the end of their affection rather than a means to social justice and dependence on God.

Look at the chart below that shows the virtues that are involved in keeping the spirit of the Ten Commandments. Love is the overarching disposition that legitimizes all the virtues of character.

What Love…

Does Is

(Love in keeping a command) (Love as a specific disposition and attitude)

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.----------------------------Loyalty
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything…. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.---------Faithfulness
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.---------Reverent
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.---------------------------Separated
Honor thy father and mother.--------------------------------------------Respectful
Thou shalt not kill.--------------------------------------------------------Humane
Thou shalt not commit adultery.----------------------------------------Principled
Thou shalt not steal.------------------------------------------------------Unselfish
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.-------------Honest
Thou shalt not covet.-----------------------------------------------------Contented

The Ten Commandments teach us that it is that which is loyal, faithful, reverent, separated, respectful, humane, committed, unselfish, honest, and contented toward God and His people that matters most to God. And how do people with these qualities behave in real life? A description of their behaviors depends on the situation and circumstances. For the situations and circumstances covered in the Ten Commandments, the virtuous do not worship other gods, or degrade the true God in any way, always sets time aside to think about and worship God, honors his or her parents, does not murder innocent people, does not have sex with someone beside one’s spouse, does not take what does not belong to self, does not lie to get someone else in trouble, and does not envy and hate others because they have more than self has. The Ten Commandments give us good instruction.

The Ten Commandments can teach us but they fall short of truly inspiring us. The Cross of Jesus Christ does that. I do not think that mere law, or words, can inspire the feelings of gratitude that born-again believers have toward their Lord and Savior. Thomas Traherne, a seventeenth-century pastor and philosopher, puts into words what many of us feel, or at least should feel, as our minds-eye gazes upon Calvary’s Cross.

“Is this He that was transfigured upon Mount Tabor? Pale, withered, extended, tortured, soiled with blood, and sweat, and dust, dried, parched! O sad, O dismal spectacle! All His joints are dissolved, all His blood is shed, to the last drop, all His moisture is consumed! What is here but a heap of desolations, a deformed carcass, a disfigured countenance! A mass of miseries and silence, footsteps of innumerable sufferings! Can this be a joy? Can this be an entertainment? Can this delight us? O Jesus, the more vile I here behold Thee, the more I admire Thee. Into what low abysses didst Thou descend, in what depths of misery dost Thou now lie! Oh what confusions, what stripes and wounds, what desolations and deformities didst Thou suffer for our sakes! In all the depths of thy humiliation I here adore thee! I prize and desire always to see those stripes and those deformities. It is sweeter to be with Thee in thy sufferings, than with princes on their Thrones, and more do I rejoice with Thee in Thy misery, than in all their solemnities. I tremble also to see thy condescensions, the great effects and expressions of Thy love! Thou wast slain for me: and shall I leave Thy body in the field, O Lord? Shall I go away and be merry, while the Love of my soul is dead upon the cross. Groans, here, in the sight and apprehension of thy love are beyond all melody, and the solemn sorrows of a loving Soul, a faithful friend, a tender Spouse, a deep and compassionate true Lover, beyond all the entertainments in the world. Thine O Jesus will I ever be while I have any Being” (Traherne, pp. 45-46).

The kind of love that moved Jesus to endure the suffering of the Cross moved Traherne to praise and wonder at such a God as would do this for him. Traherne understood. The love of Christ is our goal. The love of Christ is loyal, faithful, reverent, separated, respectful, humane, committed, unselfish, honest, and contented. The Cross of Christ contained all of these. It stands as our supreme example. The Ten Commandments were given to us in the Pentateuch thousands of years ago. But it took the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to show us how to truly do them.